You Are My Sunshine
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day nine hundred and fifty-five: Quinn's gone into labor, and Rachel is right by her side for the birth of her baby, Regionals or not. - Sunshine Girls series


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 45th cycle. Now cycle 46!_

* * *

_**INTRODUCING "CHEAT SHEET" - **If you want to know ahead of time when a certain series will be updated next, just reassemble the link below and check out the list, save it, print it, bookmark it, whatever you need!  
Go to: gleekathon [dot] tumblr [dot] com [slash] cheatsheet_

_(cycle 46 cheat sheet will be up later)_

* * *

**"You Are My Sunshine"  
Quinn, Rachel - Finn, Puck  
Sunshine Girls series (follows directly from 'Sunless Days')  
_(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)_**

"Hey! Guys, over here!" Rachel had called out down the hall, waving at whoever was close. A bunch of them had come running, Santana, Brittany, Kurt, then Mr. Schuester, before Finn spotted them and he turned right around to go and get Puck. Santana had taken up the goal to go into the audience and grab Quinn's mother. Soon they were all on their way to the hospital.

"Wait, but… Vocal Adrenaline, you… you wanted to see them," Quinn had spoken, panting after the breaths spent with labor. Rachel was by her as they drove on.

"Doesn't matter. Let Jesse have his fun. I wouldn't miss this," she just smiled, nodding with reassurance, and Quinn nodded back with relief.

"No matter how freaked out they all get, you'll keep them in line, right?"

"You just watch me go," Rachel had promised, getting some looks from both of the boys there. They looked too shocked by the turn of events to really be too out of focus anyway. Still her eyes locked on Puck's face. He was trying not to show it, but she could see he was hyper aware of her presence. It was just going to have to work out that way. He was the baby's father, so he would be there, but Quinn wanted Rachel there, so she would be in the room, too. They had to put their issues aside for the time being, to be there for Quinn and the baby.

When they had reached the hospital, there had been a dilemma. Quinn would be there, of course, and Rachel would be there, and Puck, and Judy… The nurse had stopped Finn at the door, claiming there were already a lot of people in that room. Every last one of them had a legitimate reason for being there. In the end, Finn had been let in, with an assist from both Rachel and Puck. In years to come there would be no doubt he would continue to show gratitude for this gesture. It would go a long way.

The boys had remained at the sides while Quinn grasped on her mother's hand on one side and Rachel's on the other. Everything was moving so fast, the baby not making herself waited on much too long. They weren't sure just how long it had taken, really as far as they could tell it felt like just a moment had passed from the auditorium to the hospital room and all of a sudden there were the sounds of a baby's cries.

The whole room had reacted, the boys still in muted shock, while Judy wept at the sight of her granddaughter. Rachel was not far behind on tears, though she smiled to her friend, who was still recovering from what her body had experienced. "She's perfect," Rachel had breathed, and Quinn's face had relaxed into a smile at that.

Puck had been the one to cut the cord. No matter how he and Quinn were not going to be a couple in this, she could well recognize that didn't make him back away from his role. This was his daughter who'd just been born.

The baby girl was handed to Quinn, and from the first moment she just had eyes for no one but the blonde looking down on her. Quinn was doing her own share of crying, looking at her girl, knowing that she would look out for her, watch her grow… For some time in the beginning she had just thought it impossible that she could even provide this child with what she needed. But over these months… Oh, how things had changed. She may have lost her father's presence, but for it she had gained a new version of her mother, much more open and caring. And then there was Puck, ready to step in, there was Finn, willing to be a second father figure for the child he'd been deceived into thinking was his…

And there was Rachel. Good Rachel Berry, for years someone she had been so low to but, once memories had resurfaced of their 'Sunshine days,' now saw as a best friend, ally, sister, and so much more. For her sake she hoped this thing with Puck would sort itself out, but regardless, she would be a part of her daughter's life as well, in all those things she had become for Quinn herself and maybe, for the child, a second mother as well.

She still had her fears about all of this but then the thing with fear was it needed to be fed by something to really hold power over you, and in her case, surrounded as she was with these people, her fears could starve.

Her mother was off phoning relatives, and the boys had gone to see the Glee Club and tell them about the birth, so when they had gone to her room and they'd brought the baby, it had been just her and Rachel.

"When they all go back for the results at Regionals, you should go with them," Quinn had been saying. Rachel looked ready to contest this, but Quinn shook her head. "I know you want to be there and, hey, I do, too, but I can't, on account of…"

That was when they had wheeled her in, all pink and snug in her blanket. Rachel approached, still so in awe that she was there, all real. It was hard to imagine her when her only manifestation was as a baby bump.

"Oh but how can I leave, she's just…" she crooned, looking at her there in Quinn's arms.

"Okay, sit right here," Quinn nodded to the empty space on the bed next to her legs. Rachel hesitated. "You need to go back there for both of us, so this should get you there for now. Take her," she insisted.

"I'll drop her," Rachel was afraid.

"You won't, you wouldn't let yourself," Quinn smiled. So Rachel had held out her arms and Quinn had handed the girl over. "What her h…"

"Her head, I know," Rachel nodded, gasping as she felt the baby settle in her arms. "I guess I need to go back for the three of us, I mean you did perform with us… sort of. You were brilliant, by the way," she told the little one, making Quinn laugh. Even in someone else's arms, she kept a watchful eye on her daughter. "You're still set on the name you told me a while ago?" Rachel asked.

"I am," Quinn nodded, as Rachel handed her back. She had been unsure at one point about setting her a name before seeing her, but now looking at her she could see no better fit. "This is Nora," she smiled, to the girl and to Rachel both.

"That's 'light,'" she had told the baby. "And that's what you are." They had found it so fitting, thinking of the Sunshine Girls and how they had shaped these last few months for all of them. Now Nora was both the culmination and the hope for the future. "How are you feeling?" Rachel looked to Quinn.

"Besides 'exhausted?'" she asked, smirking. "Honestly, I had no idea how I would be once she was here, I was scared I wouldn't feel… right, or…" Rachel just nodded, knowing this from over these months. "But I look at her now and I just… I love her," she shrugged, smiling.

"Well, what's not to love?" Rachel smiled as well, reaching to touch the small hand, feel the fine blonde hair on her head. "Oh, I really need to go," she laughed with a cringe, "But I want to stay…"

"Go," Quinn insisted. "Try and bring back a trophy?"

"Yeah, I'll see what I can do," Rachel had given one last wave to the baby before going.

When they would return to the hospital later, the frowns made asking whether or not they had won feel pointless. But at least there was a newborn baby girl waiting for them, to lift their spirits.

They watched Puck pick her up for the first time, instantly at effortless ease, it seemed. It amused them to no end to see how he'd try to hide his tears of joy… He wasn't fooling anyone.

Finn would get to hold her, too, and it was emotional for him as well, remembering the time when he'd thought she was his. But the last few months had been good for him and, looking at her now, he couldn't love her more, biological or not…

She would land in Rachel's arms again, where the brunette, between her situation with Puck and the loss at Regionals, to stand here and hold little Nora, she felt like nothing could touch her. She would hand her back to Quinn, smiling at the sight of her friend's happy face.

They didn't know yet how things would turn out, for any of them. They had the baby now, with so many of them wanting to be part of her life, but they'd sort it out, they knew. She was as her name would indicate, a light to brighten their world.

THE END

* * *

******A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.  
****In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are  
************always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!**


End file.
